Experiments.

The subject having now assumed a very serious and practical phase, I beg to assure you, Rev. Sir, that in what follows I write with all the care and caution that matters of human life and death require. I will tell a plain and unvarnished tale, not consciously exaggerating in one point or another, but confessing failure where it happened, and wishing only to reach the truth; fully more anxious, indeed, to detect flaws in this new curative measure, than unduly to extol it. My responsibility is great in writing on such a subject at all, either in the way of condemnation or approval. For without supposing that my opinion can have much weight in other localities, it may easily be imagined without vanity, that a gentleman who, in a twenty-eight years' practice in Biggar, has acquired many kind and valued friends, can scarcely express any medical opinion at all, without its having some weight in our own district at any rate.